Online video paves way to world record for student
The cameras were on USU student James Stephens in a Los Angeles studio as he attempted to make a new world record early this summer.
Stephens, a junior majoring in Spanish, swallowed 10 hot dogs in one minute to create a new world record. Stephens will appear on Guinness World Record’s new TV show, “Guinness World Records Gone Wild,” appearing this fall on TruTV. Guinness World Records called Stephens in late June and flew him to Los Angeles to film in early July, he said.
“Guinness called me out of the blue,” he said. “I wasn’t expecting a phone call at all.”
According to a representative from Guinness World Records, the show’s researchers provide a list of talent who producers contact if they are interested in the record. Sometimes, producers have a certain record they want to break or they create one that would be entertaining to have on television.
Stephens said he was up for the challenge.
In March 2011, Stephens swallowed eight hot dogs in 30 seconds on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno as part of the “Meal or No Meal” segment.
“It’s really weird to see yourself on TV, having watched myself on the Leno Show,” he said. “You could tell I was a little nervous.”
The producers of “Guinness World Records Gone Wild” aim to break around six records per show, according to a representative from the show.
Stephens said he was confident he could break the record – it just depended on the type of hot dog he had to eat.
“I did do eight on the Leno Show,” he said. “The difference is the hot dogs for the Guinness World Record – since there was a previous record holder – they had to meet the same specifications, so they were bigger. The ones I did on the Leno Show were just your average Oscar Mayer Wieners.”
Stephens said he wasn’t sure he could handle the larger-sized hot dogs at first but once he started, it was just a matter of swallowing.
“It was just a matter of getting the first one and then I thought, ‘I can do this,'” he said.
A Guinness world record adjudicator was on the scene to officiate that Stephens had broken the record.
“You would think you would be really, really full,” he said. “I mean 10 hot dogs is a pretty substantial amount of food in your stomach. I think it takes a little while to register in your body, for me to actually feel that I’m full, because I didn’t feel full. I actually had some food backstage afterwards. But within the hour, I was pretty stuffed.”
Stephens said he doesn’t know how Guinness World Records found out about him, but he assumes it was was because of videos posted on YouTube by his friends.
Jaron Dunford, a senior majoring in public relations, was present when Stephens swallowed his first hot dog – a dare that had escalated after Stephens had managed to swallow a whole cherry.
“I don’t remember if I was the one who dared him to do it, but I was there in person the first time that he ever did,” Dunford said. “I had it video recorded on my old phone. He swallowed the hot dog and tried to gag it back up but it had already slid down into his stomach. Even he was amazed he did it.”
According to Guinness World Records, the closest record to the one Stephens holds is the most hot dogs eaten in three minutes – bun included – which is held by Takeru Kobayashi of Japan. Kobayashi ate six hot dogs in three minutes.
Dunford was invited to the Tonight Show with Jay Leno with Stephens where they were treated like celebrities, he said. However, he said did not go to the filming of “Guinness World Records Gone Wild.”
“I think it is great for James all the attention that comes from this, it is something so unique and funny,” Dunford said. “Even at my wedding reception people asked if he would be willing to swallow hot dogs.”
– marissa.shields@aggiemail.usu.edu